A malalignment between rattlesnake-envenomed patients’ degree of compromised coagulation and the data generated by standard hematological determinations generated with blood samples anticoagulated with calcium (Ca) chelating agents is almost ce...
The Mojave rattlesnake venom shows significant geographical variability. The venom of Type A animals primarily contains β-neurotoxin referred to as Mojave Toxin (MTX), which makes bites from this snake particularly feared. We performed a genome-...
Snakebite envenomation causes over 140,000 deaths every year, predominantly in developing countries. As a result, it is one of the most lethal neglected tropical diseases. It is associated with incredibly complex pathophysiology due to the vast numbe...
Systemic envenomation by Crotalus durissus terrificus (South American rattlesnake) can cause coagulopathy, rabdomyolysis, acute kidney injury, and peripheral neuromuscular blockade, the latter resulting in flaccid paralysis. Previous studies have sho...
The specificity and potency of venom components give them a unique advantage in developing various pharmaceutical drugs. Though venom is a cocktail of proteins, rarely are the synergy and association between various venom components studied. Understa...
As trophic adaptations, rattlesnake venoms can vary in composition depending on several intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Ontogenetic changes in venom composition have been documented for numerous species, but little is known of the potential age-rela...
Phenotypic diversity generated through altered gene expression is a primary mechanism facilitating evolutionary response in natural systems. By linking the phenotype to genotype through transcriptomics, it is possible to determine what changes are oc...
Ontogenetic shifts in venom occur in many snakes but establishing their nature as gradual or discrete processes required additional study. We profiled shifts in venom expression from the neonate to adult sizes of two rattlesnake species, the eastern...
The Baja California Peninsula has over 250 islands and islets with many endemic species. Among them, rattlesnakes are the most numerous but also one of the least studied groups. The study of island rattlesnake venom could guide us to a better underst...
The most abundant protein families in viper venoms are Snake Venom Metalloproteases (SVMPs), Snake Venom Serine Proteases (SVSPs) and Phospholipases (PLA2s). These are primarily responsible for the pathophysiology caused by the bite of pit-vipers; ho...
Microtubule targeting agents (MTA) are anti-cancer molecules that bind tubulin and interfere with the microtubule functions, eventually leading to cell death. In the present study, we used an in vitro microtubule polymerization assay to screen severa...
Ecologically divergent selection can lead to the evolution of reproductive isolation through the process of ecological speciation, but the balance of responsible evolutionary forces is often obscured by an inadequate assessment of demographic history...
Using venom for predation often leads to the evolution of resistance in prey. Understanding individual variation in venom resistance is key to unlocking basic mechanisms by which antagonistic coevolution can sustain variation in traits under selectio...
Venom components are invaluable in biomedical research owing to their specificity and potency. Many of these components exist in two genera of rattlesnakes, Crotalus and Sistrurus, with high toxicity and proteolytic activity variation. This review fo...
Rattlesnake venoms may be classified according to the presence/absence and relative abundance of the neurotoxic phospholipases A 2 s (PLA 2 s), such as Mojave toxin, and snake venom metalloproteinases (SVMPs). In Mexico, studies to dete...
The C30 endopeptidase (3C-like protease; 3CLpro) is essential for the life cycle of SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2) since it plays a pivotal role in viral replication and transcription and, hence, is a promising drug targ...
Chronic wounds are a major health problem that cause millions of dollars in expenses every year. Among all the treatments used, active wound treatments such as enzymatic treatments represent a cheaper and specific option with a fast growth category i...
The Crotalus intermedius group is a clade of rattlesnakes consisting of several species adapted to a high elevation habitat, primarily in México. Crotalus tancitarensis was previously classified as C. intermedius, until individuals occurring o...
Venomous snakes often display extensive variation in venom composition both between and within species. However, the mechanisms underlying the distribution of different toxins and venom types among populations and taxa remain insufficiently known. Ra...
Ontogenetic changes in venom composition have important ecological implications due the relevance of venom in prey acquisition and defense. Additionally, intraspecific venom variation has direct medical consequences for the treatment of snakebite. Ho...
A novel non-hemorrhagic basic metalloprotease, rubelase, was isolated from the venom of Crotalus ruber ruber. Rubelase hydrolyzes succinyl-L-alanyl-L-alanyl-L-alanyl p-nitroanilide (STANA), a specific substrate for elastase, and the hydrolytic activi...
A pioneering study regarding the isolation, biochemical evaluation, functional assays and first PEGylation report of a novel vascular endothelial growth factor from Crotalus durissus terrificus venom (CdtVEGF and PEG-CdtVEGF). CdtVEGF was isolated fr...
Snakebite is a neglected tropical disease that causes extensive mortality and morbidity in rural communities. Antivenim sera are the currently approved therapy for snake bites; however, they have some therapeutic limitations that have been extensivel...
Invasive Candida infections are an important growing medical concern and treatment options are limited to a few antifungal drug classes, with limited efficacies depending on the infecting organism. In this scenario, invasive infections caused by mult...
Hybridization is defined as the interbreeding of individuals from two populations distinguishable by one or more heritable characteristics. Snake hybridization represents an interesting opportunity to analyze variability and how genetics affect the v...
This review focuses on proteins and peptides with antimicrobial activity because these biopolymers can be useful in the fight against infectious diseases and to overcome the critical problem of microbial resistance to antibiotics. In fact, snakes sho...
Phospholipase A2 (PLA2) is a major component in snake venoms and it is found in many different isoforms. To identify transcripts encoding different PLA2 isoforms, we developed a simple, rapid procedure. Total RNA was extracted from the venoms of thre...
Snakebite envenomations are classified as Category A Neglected Tropical Diseases by the World Health Organization. In Brazil, 405 snake species are distributed among 11 families, with the genera Bothrops and Crotalus being the most studied and main r...
Island tameness results largely from a lack of natural predators. Because some insular rattlesnake populations lack functional rattles, presumably the consequence of relaxed selection from reduced predation, we hypothesized that the Santa Catalina Is...
In Colombia, on average 2.9% of the nearly 5600 snakebite events that occur annually involve the rattlesnake Crotalus durissus cumanensis. The envenomation by this snake is mainly characterized by neurotoxicity and the main toxin is crotoxin (~64.7%...
Biochemical and biological differences in the venom of Crotalus durissus cumanensis from three ecoregions of Colombia were evaluated. Rattlesnakes were collected from the geographic areas of Magdalena Medio (MM), Caribe (CA) and Orinoquía (OR)...
Snake venom metalloproteinases (SVMPs) are abundant in the venoms of vipers and rattlesnakes, playing important roles for the snake adaptation to different environments, and are related to most of the pathological effects of these venoms in human vic...
In Colombia, South America, there is a subspecies of the South American rattlesnake Crotalus durissus, C. d. cumanensis, a snake of the Viperidae family, whose presence has been reduced due to the destruction of its habitat. It is an enigmatic snake...
Snake venoms are attractive natural sources for drug discovery and development, with a number of substances either in clinical use or in research and development. These drugs were developed based on RGD-containing snake venom disintegrins, which effi...
Snakebite is a neglected disease with a high impact in tropical and subtropical countries. Therapy based on antivenom has limited efficacy in local tissue damage caused by venoms. Phospholipases A2 (PLA2) are enzymes that abundantly occur in snake ve...
The development of snake venom-loaded nanobiosystems based on smart biopolymers represents a promising therapeutic approach in several biomedical research fields. Specifically, the western diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) contains various bio...
Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus) envenomation is a medical emergency encountered in the Southeastern United States. The venom contains a snake venom thrombin-like enzyme (SVTLE) that is defibrinogenating, causing coagulopathy wit...
Snakebite envenoming is a serious medical problem in different areas of the world. In Latin America, the major prevalence is due to snakes of the family Viperidae, where rattlesnakes (Crotalus) are included. They produce hemotoxic venom which causes...
The Colombian rattlesnake Crotalus durissus cumanensis is distributed in three geographic zones of the country: the Atlantic Coast, the upper valley of the Magdalena River, and the eastern plains of the Colombian Orinoquía. Its venom induces neurolog...
Rattlesnakes have venoms with a complex toxin mixture comprised of polypeptides and proteins. Previous studies have shown that some of these polypeptides are of high value for the development of new medical treatments. The aim of the present study is...
Snakebite envenoming is often discussed in terms of lethality and limb loss, but local tissue injury and coagulotoxic effects of venom are significantly more common acute manifestations of snakebite envenoming (SBE). Local tissue injury and the hemor...
Some Australian elapids possess potently procoagulant coagulotoxic venoms which activate the zymogen prothrombin into the functional enzyme thrombin. Although the activity of Australian elapid prothrombin-activators has been heavily investigated with...
Snakebite envenomings are a global public health issue. The therapy based on the administration of animal-derived antivenoms has limited efficacy against the venom-induced local tissue damage, which often leads to permanent disability. Therefore, the...
Background: Infections caused by multi-drug resistance (MDR) strains are potentially fatal public health issues worldwide that need pressing attention. Previous reports suggested using snake venom fractions as an effective alternative mechanism to th...
Phospholipases A2 (PLA2s) are a large family of snake toxins manifesting diverse biological effects, which are not always related to phospholipolytic activity. Snake venom PLA2s (svPLA2s) are extracellular proteins with a molecular mass of 13–1...
Crotoxin, from the venom of the South American rattlesnake Crotalus durissus terrificus, is a potent heterodimeric presynaptic β-neurotoxin that exists in individual snake venom as a mixture of isoforms of a basic phospholipase A2 (PLA2) subunit...
More than 5 million people are bitten by venomous snakes annually and more than 100 000 of them die. In Europe, one person dies due to envenomation every 3 years. There is only one venomous snake species in Lithuania – the common adder (Vipera berus)...
Bioactive peptides have emerged as promising therapeutic agents with antimicrobial, antifungal, antiparasitic, and, recently, antitumoral properties with a mechanism of action based on membrane destabilization and cell death, often involving a confor...
5 November 2014
Crotamine is one of the main constituents of the venom of the South American rattlesnake Crotalus durissus terrificus. Here we sought to investigate the inflammatory and toxicological effects induced by the intrahippocampal administration of crotamin...
Therapeutic peptides are oligomers or short polymers of amino acids used for various medical purposes. Peptide-based treatments have evolved considerably due to new technologies, stimulating new research interests. They have been shown to be benefici...
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